Chapter 72: Chapter 72
CARVING
Carving
The Tundra, Arctica
Tarja gasped as rocks poured all around her. She grabbed onto Aku and pulled him to safety. Beside her, Aleksander was dodging rather wicked looking rocks as they came tumbling down at him. She just looked at him, unable to speak over the roar of the falling rock.
Dust somehow managed to find its way into her lungs, making it very difficult to breath. Her coughs were wet as the dust stuck to the inside of her lungs like glue.
She looked around at the others. Aku's eyes were open, but they were heavily unfocused other than a few cuts, he seemed to be okay. Aleksander was getting to his feet, looking mostly untouched.
"Well that was fun," Aleksander muttered as he started dusting himself off. His eyes narrowed as more and more dust seemed to come out of nowhere.
Tarja pulled Aku to his feet. Something wasn't right. She looked around. There was no sign of the newcomer and Elisa. She didn't think they were dead. That just didn't make sense to her, but something just didn't feel right about them not being here. She scanned the battle, but there was no sign of them, not even a trace of movement.
Aku coughed. "We should move," he whispered, his voice coming out so hoarse that Tarja had a hard time hearing him.
"Yeah, that doesn't look too good," Aleksander said.
Tarja looked up at the rock ledge above them. They were right-it didn't look good. The base was not much bigger around than she was and it was holding up a rather large and wicked looking rock. It was probably about the size of a house. She took a step back as a crack started to form at its base. Yeah, that wasn't good.
The ground beneath her feet started to rumble as a crack in the earth rushed toward the ledge. It got bigger and bigger the closer it came to the ledge. She turned and started running as little bits of the rock started to fall, hitting the ground and breaking into a million tiny pieces.
Gasping, she ran, only being slowed down by Aku's dead weight. Why didn't he even bother to help himself? Why didn't he try to save himself? Did he really want to die?
Further and further away they pushed from the falling rock. Rock was already piled up around them from the other tower. Tarja tightened her grip on Aku as the little peddles beat against her skin. Ahead of them, Aleksander looked back over his shoulder.
Up and over the rock piles they went. Behind them, the cracking only grew louder. Tarja knew it was only a matter of time before the entire structure came down and she wasn't sure if they were out of range.
"Faster!" Aleksander screamed.
Tarja looked over her shoulder. The main part of the wall was starting to crack. It would only be a matter of seconds before the entire thing came down.
The ground shook beneath as he feet. She swore as she looked over her shoulder. The ledge was now leaning over and they weren't out of range.
"AKU!" she screamed as she urged him forward. "You have to try and save yourself!"
He looked up at her wide eyed. She wasn't sure if that was a good sign or not. At least, he was somewhat paying attention to what she was saying. She slapped him upside the head. "Hey," he muttered as he rubbed it. "That hurt!"
"It's going to hurt a lot worse if you don't get moving," she snapped.
Aku frowned at her. "Why are you being so mean?"
"I'm just trying to save your life. Now, I am going to start running and I am not taking you with me. You can come with me, but only if you come on your own. It's all up to you." She turned and started running.
The ground kept cracking beneath her feet. A few of the gaps were so wide that she actually had to jump over them.
Ahead of her, she could see that Aleksander was in the middle of his own battle. The snakes seemed to be forming some kind of a circle around him. He had his sword out and was stabbing at them. Every time he cut one down, another one appeared in its place. She had to get to him. There was no way that he was going to be to get out of that mess on his own.
Then, she heard something beside her. It didn't quite fit in the with the cracking, but it did kind of sound like it. She looked over. There was Aku, running right beside her, looking more alive than he had in a long time. She actually smiled at the sight. There was just something so relieving about seeing someone decide to fight for their life rather than lay everything down.
Ahead of them, Aleksander was still locked in his duel with the snakes. The circle seemed to be getting smaller and smaller. Soon, they would have him so tightly locked that he would have no place to go, then they would make their kill. At least, he was still fighting, so he wasn't completely ready to give it all up.
Tarja willed herself to go faster, wishing that she had some more bullets. She didn't know how people fought before the invention of bullets. Why hadn't she grabbed some more before they left Kitee?
Aku was now actually pasted Tarja. The dust was increasing to the point that she was finding it hard to breath and could feel her body shutting down. She kept willing herself to go faster, but nothing seemed to be happening. She was getting weaker.
She wanted to stop and go to sleep…Wanted to just let the night and darkness overtake her…It couldn't be that bad, could it? They said that dying was just like going to sleep.
No one else seemed to see just how weak she was getting. It felt like she was in a daze of sorts, like her body was half here and half not. She could still feel the ground shaking beneath her feet and someone was grabbing onto to her. She was aware of that person pulling her away and of the snakes hissing rather angrily at her. The person was digging his hands into her sides, yelling someone at her.
She shook her head as she struggled to catch sight of who was yelling at her. "Aku?" she whispered.
"You wouldn't let me give up on myself, so I'm not letting you," Aku said as he forced himself forward. "We've come too far to give up now."
Tarja gave him what she hoped was a smile. "Well, I'm glad you came back." She could feel her senses slowly start to return to her body. It felt so much better, like she was becoming a whole again. "I think we should run though instead of talking."
Aku smiled and nodded. "I was thinking the same thing."
Together, they kicked off and started to run through the snakes. The ground was shaking so hard beneath their feet that it was hard to stay upright. Ahead of the them, Aleksander was on the move again. At least, he had managed to get himself free. She wasn't sure just how he had managed to pull that one off. The last time she had seen him, it did look like he was going to die.
Dust burned her lungs, making her cough even more and more, but she did not allow herself to stop. To stop would only mean death and, though she was prepared to meet her Maker, it just didn't seem fitting for today.
"AKU!" Tarja screamed as more and more rock fell on them. She could feel the rocks beat against her skin. Some of their sharp edges drew blood and more felt like they were going to leave bruises.
Aku looked back at her with wide eyes as he kept urging them forward. He didn't say a word as they jumped over a wall of snakes. Tarja actually closed her eyes. The wall of snakes were so tall and she knew they weren't nearly high enough in the air to avoid them. However, they made it over somehow. She didn't even feel their slimy tongues lick at her skin.
On and on they went. They were actually starting to catch up to Aleksander, whose pace seemed to slowing down, as if he were waiting on them. The snakes seemed to be decreasing. Tarja noticed that entire patches of ground were empty of them.
Aleksander looked back at them. "Come on!"
The ground was shaking so hard that it was difficult to stay upright, let alone run. Tarja and Aku kept running as fast as they could, more than once they almost slide to the ground.
Tarja grabbed onto Aku after a rather nasty shake. She looked up at him as he gasped. She looked over at where he was looking. The rock seemed to have a domino effect or something. It was sending the next one crashing into each other. At this rate, all of the rocks were going to come down and there would no place for them to go. She shook her head as more and more came towering down over them.
She frowned. This really was amazing, even though it was trying to kill them. Even though the world was dangerous, there was some beauty to it.
She quickly shook herself out of her daze, grabbed Aku, and ran forward. Aleksander had somehow now ended up beside them. His heavy breathing could be heard over the rumble. Why was he breathing so hard? She had never heard of a wolf running out of air before.
Tarja jumped over a rather wicked looking log just as a crash echoed behind her. She looked over her shoulder. The rock ledges were on their side, creating a rather thick layer of dust. Had they not gotten out of there in time, they would had been dead.
Aleksander shook his head. "Well, this has been some wild adventure."
Aku just snorted.
Tarja pulled a stray piece of hair away from her face. "At least that is all over now," she muttered. She looked around at the bit of forest they were standing in. While there didn't seem to be any kind of danger close by, it didn't do well to let your guard down. She couldn't even hear the battle now.
"What do we do now?" Aku whispered. Tarja could not believe that he was actually whispering in a time like this. Why would you think it was fit to whisper?
Tarja watched at the dust started to clear just a little bit. "We have to go back and fight. We can't just leave like this."
Aleksander nodded. "I really don't want to, but I don't think we have much of choice." He sighed. "There's just one little problem."
Tarja looked at him. "And what is that?"
"We really don't know where the battle is." He paused. "Can any of you hear it?"
Tarja shook her head as she looked at Aku, who was also shaking his head. Great…If the wolves couldn't hear it, then they had to be really far away from the battle. This wasn't good…This just simply was not good. How far out were they?
"I suppose we need to start walking," Tarja said, her voice heavy.
"Yeah, I guess so," Aleksander echoed.
Tarja gave them a small smile before starting forward. The branches crunched beneath her feet. She couldn't remember the snow melting off the ground. Come to think of it, the air was a lot warmer too. Did this land have the power to make the seasons change? If it did, it was magic far older than anything she had ever experienced.
She paused after only taking a few steps and listened. She could had sworn that she heard movement not very far away from her. She looked back at the others, who had also paused. There! She heard it again! She looked just to her right, just in time to see Elisa and the newcomer run past them and up a stone path.
"Let's go!" Tarja hissed.
They ran toward the path, but by the time they had reached it, the path was gone. Tarja looked up. The newcomer and Elisa were circling each other and the newcomer looked like she was holding something in her hand.